Great Pumpkins

Part 2 of the 5 Posts of Fright series

The kindergarten classes ( well, at least the A class: B has missed Friday classes because of early release and harvest parties) made some great jack-o-lanterns.

We took a class to discuss the soft food sculptures of Claes Oldenburg. After that, we stuffed some paper lunch bags with newspaper and used some string to tie the top.  After some smooshing around, we broke out the orange paint and loaded them up by holding the "stem" and painting around in a circle.

After dry time (next class) I gave the students some small pieces of black and yellow paper and we attempted some scissor work to cut out shapes and glue them to create our jack-o-lanterns.

Tech Tool 'o' the Week: Wallwisher

Wallwisher explains their tool as an "online notice board maker"  where people (in this case, students, teachers, and the rest of the school community) can post virtual post-it notes to a "wall" with it's own web address.

Easy to use, and feature-packed, people can put images, links, pics, or videos onto a sticky note and post it to the wall based on the topic of the board.

My hope is to use Wallwisher soon.  It has a lot of educational uses.

A link to Wallwisher can also be found on the Monroe splash page under the "web tools" category

No Bones About It

 Part 1 of the 5 Posts of Fright series

Did you know that the average human skeleton has 206 bones.  We are born with around 300 or so first, but a lot of cool bone fusing happens when we are kids growing up (mostly in the skull).

Enough science! Let's get to the art.

The third graders discussed the Latin Day of the Dead celebration traditions and the use of skeletons to symbolize ghosts and other worldly beings whose spirits rise during this 3 day festival.

Then, we cracked into the pasta.  The kids dug into the pasta and started arranging elements together to create the perfect dancing skeleton, skeleton portrait, skeleton animals, and whatever they could dream up.  

After some white glue drying time (still using too much glue! I don't know how to stop them!)  we opened up some white tempera paint and used small brushes to spread a light coat onto our skeletons.

Frighteningly Festive...  mmwaa haaa  haaa!

Making a Splash

The MES staff and students are trying out our new splash page that appears when we open our web browsers at school.  This is the place where all links, interactive activities, and information is found that relates to the technology that the students use on a daily basis to reinforce curriculum content.

Parents, you should check it out too.  There is often information on the splash page that relates to what the students are doing both in the classroom and online.  You would be quite amazed what they are up to!

I recommend checking out your student's grade level page to see what is happening in their online world and how both myself and their classroom teachers are using technology to enhance a variety of core objectives.